MSC launches industrial platform

The motherboard in Mini-ITX format (170 x 170mm) is designed for the acceptance of COM Express modules in basic and compact form factors, in compliance with Type 2 of the COM Express specification.

MSC offers its powerful COM Express modules in different performance classes, for example with Intel Pentium M, Intel Atom or Intel Core 2 Duo processor, allowing a simple upgrade or scaling of the respective application.

The industrial platform MSC CX-MB-IP1 has a broad range of interfaces available, which are particularly required in industrial applications.

In addition to USB 2.0, two LAN interfaces are provided, whereby only one connection exists on the COM Express Type 2 module, the other being implemented on the baseboard.

In order to allow serial communication, which is important for industrial applications, two 9-pin D-Sub connectors are located on the platform.

The bus interfaces can be extended by raiser cards on PCI and PCI Express x1.

A total of four different raiser cards are available from MSC: 2 x PCI or PCI Express plus PCI and 4 x PCI or 3 x PCI plus PCI Express.

A MiniPCI card holder is implemented on the board for integration of wireless LAN or Bluetooth extensions.

Thanks to the broad availability of SATA interfaces for mass storage and DVD/CD drives, the still-existent IDE interfaces in COM Express Type 2 were designed to accept CompactFlash cards directly on the baseboard.

The platform can also be used in applications where rotating mass storage should be completely abandoned.

For integration of a variety of different displays, the platform provides a Jili30 connector and a backlight connection, via which the COM Express module is directly controllable.

Appropriate display kits and cable sets are available from MSC.

Because modern computer-on-modules consistently include high definition audio (HDA), an HDA codec has been implemented on the baseboard.